Class Glass
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Class Glass Glassware has been known since Ancient Times, almost as long as wine has been cultivated. Later on, when the bottle was invented, a wine revolution began. It first appeared in Egypt around 1500 BC but it was the Romans who perfected the art of glass blowing and produced some wonderfully intricate goblets and decanters. However, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, glass production became sporadic and it was really only in Venice that glass resembled anywhere like the finesse it had achieved under the Roman Empire. Venetian glass, although beautiful and fine, was very fragile and had to be protected by straw or wicker; today this form is remembered in the Italian “fiasco” bottle, used for Chianti that decorated many a student bedsit in the 1970s and 1980s. At the end of the 16th century, if you could not afford glass, you had to be content with a kind of stoneware, which was used to make Bellarmine jugs, produced in Germany. The Dutch, with their pragmatic outlook, invented square shaped glass bottles in the 17th century that could be stacked more easily when shipped; this format is still found today in the form of Dutch gin bottles.
It was only in the 17th century that the advent of wide scale glass production made wine both elegant and safe to drink. Before bottles, barrels of wine were extremely perishable with sell-by dates which were often ignored. Wine was preserved either by keeping it very cold or by adding alcohol to prevent the spread of bacteria. When the bottle was invented, a wine revolution began. Before bottles, glass was only used to bring wine from the barrel to the table and was much more prized for decanters than either silver or gold.
Home Use
Glass could not make the transition from luxury to everyday until a way of increasing the heat of the fires was found. In the mid 17th century, with the advent of coal mined in the north of England, coal fired furnaces could make stronger glass that if not as white and pure as the Venetian examples, was much more reliable. The first wine bottles were dark globes with a high neck ending in a collar for tying down the stopper. Their stability was enhanced by a deep groove or “punt” in the- middle of the base, which is still found today in most fine wine bottles. Their inventor was an English gentleman and adventurer called Sir Kenelm Digby. Glass bottles served as decanters; a household would order their wine in barrel and then bottle the wine themselves with their re-usable supply of bottles, as their needs dictated. Cork was yet to become a reliable closure and as late as 1825 the ultimate luxury stopper was made of ground glass. Some of these bottles were used to bottle Château Lafite in 1820 and 1825. For those households who had the luxury of their own cellar, such bottles were stored on shelves with holes drilled into them to take the necks of upside-down bottles or in beds of sand.
The ultimate test for these new bottles came with Champagne. When this still white wine, much prized by Louis XIV who barely drunk anything else, was bottled, it began to develop a frothy fizziness when the bottles were opened; much to the delight of its customers. The French glass bottles still made by wood fired stoves were not strong enough to resist the pressure building up in the bottles which often cracked and exploded. It was not until the beginning of the 18th century when English glass blowers went to work in France bringing their art of making sturdy bottles with them that Champagne could be safely bottled and transported. By 1735 sparkling wine from Champagne was well-established and a royal decree dictated the shape, size and weight of Champagne bottles as well as their cork and packaging.
Drinking Glasses
Back in Britain, bottles were used for wine and Port. They gradually evolved from their original use as a decanter to become a vessel in which a wine could be stored or “laid down” on its side so that its cork could be kept moist as the wine slowly aged. By the end of the 18th century, bottles had evolved from a decanter-like, onion form to a shape much more like the tall bottle with its long neck that we know today. Many of the great houses and chateaux throughout Europe built large underground cellars with vaulted, brick bins which held 25 dozen bottles or the contents of a barrel of wine. A larger bin, twice the size, held a hogshead of Port or 50 dozen bottles. Meanwhile, a small revolution was taking place in the south of England with drinking glasses. In 1675 George Ravenscroft discovered the art of making lead crystal which gave rise to a new style of etched wine glass and decanter, with a series of different shapes and colours designed to suit the different styles of wine available. This glassware was very popular throughout the 18th and 19th centuries and it was only towards the end of the 20th century, when people began to question the use of lead in glass that this style of glassware began to decrease in popularity.
Matching glass to wine
Today, the art of matching the wine to the right glass has become a fine art and glasses are a very important part of the tasting, and enjoyment of wine. Firstly, the best sort of glass is a clean, clear, colourless and plain model cut as finely as possible. The other important factor is a stem so that the drinker can hold the glass without affecting the temperature of the wine, or smudging the bowl with their hands. The stem also allows you to give the wine that all important “swirl” which is necessary to release the bouquet of the wine as the glass rotates. Finally, a good tasting glass should be tapered slightly at the top of the rim; this is to avoid spilling when the glass is rotated and to concentrate the aromas when you smell the wine.
The best finely cut glasses traditionally come from Bohemia and range from the wildly expensive hand blown to the utilitarian household glass. Good value glasses can be found I Poland and the Czech Republic. Usually, most households settle on a long, elongated glass for Champagne, a large glass for red wine and a smaller version for white wine.
Choosing the right sort of glass for a specific wine is subtle and confusing and there is no greater protagonist than Georg Riedel, an Austrian glass maker. His company designs a wide series of glasses for different wines – Burgundy, young Bordeaux, mature Bordeaux, Chianti, Brunello, Barolo, Californian Cabernet – the nuances are many and often depend on market demand. The technique of matching glass and wine depends on how the nose captures the various aromas of a certain wine or how the wine hits your mouth as the glass it brought to your lips. It is truly fascinating to see how the same wine can taste completely different depending upon which glass it is served in.
Decanters
As bottles were used to store wine, decanters evolved to become objects of value on any fine table. Fashions changed over the years, but the main form of a glass decanter was one that held just over a litre of liquid so that a bottle of wine had space to breathe once it was poured into the vessel. Decanters serve two main purposes: the first is to let the wine breathe if it is still young and needs a good dose of oxygen to release the aromas and flavours. The other is to remove the sediment from an old bottle of wine or port. The first action is done quite vigorously to let as much air into the wine as possible; the latter carefully, often with the aid of a candle so that you know when to stop pouring as soon as the wine becomes cloudy with residue. Today there are so many different designs, that decanters have passed from being a utility item to one that expresses the true personality of the wine, if not the owner.
Whatever style you choose, glassware is very much a part of the enjoyment of fine wine. From traditional to contemporary, from cut glass to whisper thin crystal, wine glasses today have become objects of beauty as well as utility.
Fiona Morrison MW |
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